Counseling Center

Crisis Services

Student life can be stressful, and many students are dealing with multiple problems. We want to make sure help is available to you 24 hours a day.

When the Counseling Center is open

When the Counseling Center is open, we have a Counselor on Duty to take calls and meet with students who are in crisis. If you'd like to see this counselor, call us at 453-5371 and say you'd like to see the Counselor on Duty. We can arrange an appointment for that day. If you can't wait for an appointment, just come directly to the Counseling Center, and we will have someone see you very soon. Even when we are at our busiest, the Counselor on Duty is always available. There is no charge to see the Counselor on Duty if you are not a current client of the Counseling Center.

We work closely with the campus psychiatrist at the Student Health Service. If you believe that you may need medication, we can speed up the referral process by seeing you here and then referring you to the psychiatrist.

When the Counseling Center is closed

On evening, weekends, and university holidays, a variety of kinds of help is available.

If you are suicidal and need immediate help, go to the emergency room at Carbondale Memorial Hospital located at 305 W. Jackson Street. Crisis counselors from the local community mental health center come to the emergency room to see you. They will let us know what has happened the next day so that we can follow up with services as needed.

If you have another kind of emergency (for example, someone has threatened immediate harm to him/herself), call SIU campus police at 453-2381. Campus police can send out an ambulance, a city police car, or the county sheriff, depending on the location of the person in crisis.

If you are not feeling strong suicidal urges, but you need someone to talk to when we are not open, three numbers to call are:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255

The National Hopeline Network 1-800-442-4673

Girls and Boys Town Hotline 1-800-448-3000 (this line takes calls from adults as well as children)

If you use one of these numbers, please give us a call as soon as we are open so that we can provide more direct help.

Survival

If food, shelter, and other basics are a problem for you, here is a list of local survival resources.

Comments: Webmaster